7 – EVGA GTX 580 Classified Ultra: Power Consumption and Temperature

As I said in the overview section, this card can run FurMark at full speed without throttling. This is due to the strong power circuitry that equips the Classified Ultra.

At idle, the total power consumption (TPC) of the testbed is 117W. The GPU temperature does not exceed 35°C.

When stressed by FurMark 1.9.2 (800×600 windowed, burn-in option checked), the GPU temperature reached 89°C. On the following screenshot, the temperature curve shows the overheating protection in action:

The TPC was around 558W.

I also tested OC Scanner. OC Scanner is EVGA’s GPU stress test and artifact scanner and like EVGA Precision, this graphics card utility is free for owners of EVGA cards.

With OC Scanner (1920×1080 fullscreen), I reached a TPC of 570W while the GPU temperature was still to its max value, 89°C.

When running the stress test utilities, the power consumption of the CPU is roughly 25W. The PSU, a Corsair AX 1200, has an efficiency of around 0.9.

Here is how I calculate the graphics card power (GC_Power):

GC_Power = (TPC_FurMark - CPU_Power - TPC_Idle) * PSU_Efficiency

where
– TPC_FurMark: total power consumption under FurMark
– CPU_Power: power consumption of the CPU when one core is running at 100%: around 25W
– TPC_Idle: total power consumption at idle: 117W
– PSU_Efficiency: around 0.9.

which leads to:
GC_Power = (570 – 25 – 117) * 0.9GC_Power = 385W

385W is just a crazy power consumption for a air-cooled card with factory settings. But the Classified is ready for such stress tests. Keep in mind that with two 8-pin and one 6-pin power connectors, the board can handle up to 450W. And under extreme overclocking (LN2, high GPU voltage), the card can handle up to 1000W…

By the way, the GPU voltage at idle is 0.960V. Under load, the GPU voltage (or VDDC) jumps to 1.210V (I got this value with the voltmeter).